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WMFR chooses a new chief

WMFR chooses a new chief

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, West Manatee Fire Rescue.

BRADENTON – When Chief Tom Sousa retires from the district in October, West Manatee Fire Rescue will have a new chief in Battalion Chief Ben Rigney.

When Sousa announced his early retirement from the district, board members decided to open the position first to internal candidates before considering allowing non-district employees to apply. Out of that first round of searching, one internal candidate emerged – Battalion Chief Ben Rigney. During a March 19 meeting, commissioners voted unanimously in favor of appointing Rigney as Sousa’s successor as fire chief, contingent upon contract negotiations with board Chair David Bishop. The terms of the contract will be brought before the board at a future meeting.

Commissioner Larry Jennis, who headed the selection committee, recommended the board do away with the final phase of the application process, presenting a short oral presentation to the board. Jennis said that with Rigney having already presented to the board numerous times there was no reason to ask him to do it again, something his fellow commissioners agreed with.

Rigney’s appointment to the fire chief position will be effective upon Sousa’s retirement, expected Oct. 17.

Commissioner Randy Cooper said he feels that Rigney is well qualified for the position and has good ideas to move the district forward in the future. “I’m looking forward to working with him,” he said.

“I think he’ll make a fine chief,” Commissioner George Harris said.

“I’m very pleased with the candidate,” Commissioner Al Robinson said.

For his part, Sousa said he’s very pleased with the choice of Rigney as his successor. “The district’s in great hands so everything’s going to work out great,” he said.

“I’m very excited,” Rigney said of the opportunity to be WMFR’s chief. “I’m very excited to work with the district and to further the goals of the missions of the department.”

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WMFR merger just talk for now

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News, Manatee County.

BRADENTON – There’s been a lot of talk about a proposed merger between West Manatee, Southern Manatee, and Cedar Hammock fire districts, but, until Cedar Hammock’s leadership commits to a feasibility study, it’s all just talk.

During the July 16 WMFR commission meeting, Commissioner George Harris, who first brought up the idea of a merger, said that without Cedar Hammock in agreement, the idea is done. The reason that Cedar Hammock is the lynchpin for the deal is that fire districts can only merge with districts they share a contiguous border with according to the state statutes governing special districts. While WMFR does share a border with Cedar Hammock, out of the two, only Cedar Hammock shares a border with Southern Manatee.

Harris said that he’d spoken with the board chairman at Cedar Hammock who agreed to consider the proposal.

“I found him to be an enlightened individual who is quite apparently an out-of-the-box thinking commissioner,” Harris said. “He committed to looking at it.”

In addition to speaking with the chairman, Harris said he was encouraged to speak with other Cedar Hammock commissioners. His intent, he said, is to meet with all of the commissioners and their challengers to discuss the idea of a merger.

Before a merger can become reality, all three districts must agree to consider the possibility and financially commit to a feasibility study conducted by an independent organization. If a feasibility study is conducted and finds that the merger would be beneficial to all three districts and their residents, it would eventually fall to the voters in each district to decide if a merger happens. If at any point in the process one of the districts’ leadership determines the merger is not in their district’s best interests, the merger would fall apart.

While his fellow WMFR commissioners are willing to entertain the idea of a merger with the impending sale of the district’s administration building and the end of Fire Chief Tom Sousa’s contract in three years, they have not voted to commit any resources to the project.

“I’ve high hopes we will be able to make continuous progress,” Harris said.

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WMFR commissioners address merger concerns

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Community News.

BRADENTON – West Manatee Fire Rescue commissioners are giving Commissioner George Harris the green light to reach out to leaders at two other Manatee County fire districts to see if there’s any interest in merging.

Talks about a merge began in May with a comment by Harris, saying that with the district readying to sell its administration building and Chief Tom Sousa considering retirement in three years, now is the time to talk about merging with another district. At the June meeting, Harris said, as chair, he’d approached the commission board chairs at both Cedar Hammock and Southern Manatee to see if there is any interest in a merger between the three fire districts. He said both chairs were willing to discuss the idea with their boards.

At WMFR, Harris’ fellow commissioners agreed to have the discussion but not to put forward any funds for an independently-conducted feasibility study that would be required by the state before a merger could take place. In addition to the study, each district would have to hold public hearings, publish a plan for how the merger would work and enter into a joint resolution with the other merging fire districts. The final decision would be up to voters. If at any point during the process there was opposition from one district or its voters to the merger, the process would likely end.

Commissioner David Bishop wished Harris good luck on his quest, noting that WMFR had previously considered merging with the neighboring Cedar Hammock district in 2010 and had rejected the idea.

“You’ve got a lot of hurdles to tackle,” he said to Harris.

Before the feasibility study, each board has to determine how or if the merger would be beneficial to their district and employees. Harris said items to consider include if the merger would improve the level of service in one or all of the three fire districts, if there would be no increased cost to taxpayers and if the merger terms would be agreeable to each district’s firefighters union. Commissioner Larry Jennis said he believes mergers like this often are done to cut overhead and administration costs, something that’s already been accomplished at WMFR.

“How much could we expect to gain in that area?” he asked.

Harris said he would expect cost savings to appear over time. The trick, he said, would be to avoid an increase in short-term costs.

Another issue with the merger proposed by Harris is that mergers of special districts are only allowed if the two share a border. While WMFR does share an eastern border with Cedar Hammock, of the two, only Cedar Hammock shares a border with Southern Manatee. In order to bring Southern Manatee into the mix, Cedar Hammock’s leadership would have to agree to the merger with WMFR.

At their June meeting, Southern Manatee commissioners were less than enthusiastic about the idea.

Southern Manatee Commissioner Daniel Center said he didn’t understand why a merger with a district not bordering its own was even a discussion at this point. In addition to believing the merger talks are premature, he said he’s unsure what a district as large as Southern Manatee would gain from merging with Cedar Hammock and West Manatee.

Commissioner Melanie Marken agreed that she felt the talks were premature and felt that it put undue stress on district employees who might be concerned about their positions if a merger were to take place.

Without an agreement to a merger from Cedar Hammock leadership, Southern Manatee commissioners agreed it was “a conversation about nothing” for their district at this point.

Cedar Hammock’s commission board meets July 26.

WMFR marine truck

WMFR discusses new goals, vision

Written by SUN contributor on . Posted in Anna Maria Island, Community News.

BRADENTON – West Manatee Fire Rescue leadership is ready to tackle the next five years with new goals and an updated vision for the future.

During a workshop session, Chief Tom Sousa laid out seven goals for 2018-2022, along with updated vision, mission and value statements for the district.

“It’s a road map for where we’re going to go in the next five years,” he told fire commissioners.

Setting a new statement

Sousa suggested updating the district’s guiding statements for the new five-year strategic plan.

He recommended “West Manatee Fire Rescue is committed to be a role model of public safety excellence” as the new mission statement.

“The goal is to be the best,” Sousa said.

For a new vision statement, he suggested something that encompasses the commitment of staff members. “We have become the leaders in what we do because we never lose sight of why we do it” is the suggested new vision statement.

Sousa suggested “Excellence through commitment, courage and compassion” as the new value statement.

Goals

The seven goals recommended by Sousa and Administrative Battalion Chief Ben Rigney were well-received by commissioners during the workshop with little discussion.

The first goal is to improve the district’s internal communications. Rigney said this measure is to help administration keep an open door policy with staff and the public.

The second goal is to develop efficiencies in the delivery of public safety services through collaboration and consolidation. To achieve this goal, Rigney said WMFR will work with other districts to train and learn from each other. Another segment of the goal would be to work with Manatee County Marine Rescue to expand beach rescue services when the other entity isn’t on duty. Sousa noted that in some instances, WMFR personnel is closer to the scene of a beach accident than Marine Rescue, particularly on the north end of the Island. Marine Rescue is headquartered in Bradenton Beach. WMFR is working with Manatee County to deploy a new two-person marine rescue vehicle.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge that we’re not competing with these other entities,” Fire Commissioner David Bishop said. “We’re complimenting them.”

The third suggested goal is to increase the value of services provided by the implementation of advanced life support services, also known as ALS.

The ALS implementation has been high on the district’s priority list for more than a year. Sousa said the application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity has been submitted for approval to Manatee County. County commissioners will have to vote to approve the application before WMFR can launch the service. With non-transport ALS, WMFR firefighters can provide the same medical services as EMS without the ability to drive patients to the hospital. Full implementation of the service is expected to take three years to complete.

A fourth goal is the development of an in-house mentoring program to train staff for the next progressive role in their chosen career path.

The fifth goal is to review and revise the district’s response resource allocations to maximize efficiency. Implementation requires developing a plan with outside agencies to create a closest-unit response and an automated move-up plan to backfill stations while crews are out on calls.

Bishop said the plan may be more difficult to enact because of the politics involved, however, he agreed it’s a worthwhile endeavor. Sousa said he expects it to take at least a few years before some kind of agreement can be reached.

A sixth goal is for the district’s fire prevention staff to implement a community risk reduction plan compliant with the ISO grading system, which rates how well the district meets public safety and education standards.

The seventh goal is for district leadership to review, update and consolidate policies and procedures.

With fire commissioners’ blessing, Sousa said he would put his recommendations for the strategic plan into a more formal document to be voted on, then presented at a future public hearing for educational purposes.